As she prepares to leave city council, Tweedy looks back at more than a decade of public service

Bryson Gordon

After spending all of the 2010s in leadership positions across the Hill City, outgoing at-large Lynchburg City Councilwoman Treney Tweedy has seen a fair amount of change.

In 2009, Tweedy was appointed to the Lynchburg City School Board, kicking off more than a decade of public service for the city that would see her become an at-large city councilor in 2014 and the city's mayor in 2018.

"Being able to take issues to city council to create longstanding change or policy that will improve people's lives was something that I took very seriously my first four years, and it became evermore important my last four years," Tweedy said.

Tweedy sought a third term on Lynchburg City Council in November's election but finished fourth in a field of seven candidates for three at-large seats, about 525 votes behind third-place finisher Martin Misjuns. That election saw both Tweedy and fellow incumbent Beau Wright, both independents, lose their seats as Lynchburg elected three Republicans and a third independent, Randy Nelson, retired.

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Tweedy has about as much Lynchburg in her blood as one could imagine. The former mayor was raised in the Rivermont neighborhood, graduated from E.C. Glass High School, received a bachelor's degree from then-Lynchburg College and worked in the city's school division as a public information officer.

Reflecting on her two terms on council, Tweedy said in a recent interview that many of the years in her first term were spent learning the ropes and then using that knowledge to impact areas that were important to her.

One of the first initiatives born out of that was the city's poverty reduction effort, Bridges to Progress, which Tweedy collaborated with former Mayor Joan Foster to create.

"I think that was really important because we had to work with council to understand the issue of poverty in our city," Tweedy said. "We had been identified with a 24% poverty rate. And so that should be unacceptable for any city."

According to the latest U.S. Census data, that number has been reduced to about 17% in Lynchburg just four years after announcing the beginning of the Bridges to Progress program.

"So what is the actual reason for the decrease? I would hope that it is because we created a broader awareness of what's happening in our city on this topic, and the fact that many organizations did come together and work on focusing on the issues of poverty," Tweedy said.

In July 2018, Tweedy was chosen by her colleagues on council to serve as the city's mayor, becoming the first Black female mayor in the city's history.

While it wasn't always a position she set out to hold, Tweedy said the opportunity still was "incredibly humbling."

"I stood on the shoulders ... of a lot of people in our community, a lot of women who did a lot of work," Tweedy said. "It wasn't just me doing it by myself; it's because they laid the groundwork and open[ed] lanes for me to be able to walk through that door."

Tweedy said she hopes her story shows "other women of color, people of color, understand that they have the skills. They have the strength. They have the ability to do what they want to do. And if they set out to do the work and just put their focus forward, then they can achieve it."

Tweedy described her mayoral term as a "crisis time of leadership," pointing to events that took place over the first two years, including the coronavirus pandemic and protests in response to the death of George Floyd, who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020.

"We had so many things nationally going on; politics was changing, if you will," Tweedy said. "It was the summer, some call it the George Floyd summer, where it was a lot of tension between communities and law enforcement. And you had folks on both sides wanting to be heard and respected and everyone's viewpoint."

That tension reached a high point in Lynchburg on May 31, 2020, when a peaceful protest about racial injustice turned violent outside the now-closed Fifth & Federal Station restaurant, leading to a riot that caused property damage and ended with several arrests and a citywide mandatory curfew the following night.

While a lot of the national public discourse at the time was around defunding police departments, Tweedy said those conversations never happened in Lynchburg, and she is proud council pushed to get raises for Lynchburg police the following year.

"That was never my stance," she said of defunding police. "It was never council's stance. And it wasn't the stance of the local community. So even more important at that time was to find ways to fund public safety, find ways to engage in increasing the numbers in our public safety ranks, whether it was police and/or fire, and that's what council committed to do."

Looking back on the city's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tweedy said she believes the city did a "great job" in complying with the state and federal government regulations, all while doing what was best for Lynchburg.

"Taking all of that into consideration, as a mayor, and working with your city staff, first thing you want to do is keep people safe," Tweedy said.

"And so that's the same situation ... you want to make sure that people come out on the other side, either better than they were or at least you want to make sure people are able to come out on the other side. And with COVID, people were dying. And so what was most sad to me is the politics around what was happening."

Specifically, she credited the city's collaborative efforts across several departments for the work in getting a regional vaccination center up and running, as well as Economic Development's work in "helping businesses pivot" to being drive-thrus or take-out operations in such uncharted waters.

But out of the pandemic and summer of 2020 arose political rhetoric that Tweedy believed made it difficult for her and Wright to keep their council seats.

"I think we all know, and can see, that national politics became more negative politics. And you just have people doing more fighting, not resolving problems, less collaboration, and more grandstanding. And some national agenda is just to do that. It's just grandstanding," Tweedy said.

When asked if she had any regrets about how she ran her campaign or her messaging leading up to the Nov. 8 elections, Tweedy emphatically said, "Oh, no, nothing at all."

Instead, Tweedy acknowledged the campaign for this year's city council race began with the pandemic.

Asked if rhetoric around the pandemic shaped the ensuing local election, Tweedy answered, "Yes, because if you didn't agree with not wearing masks, then there was a campaign against you for that. If you didn't agree with not closing businesses, then it was a campaign against you for that. If you didn't agree with, you know, the lowering of [real estate] taxes, for whatever reasons, then it was a campaign against you for that."

The former mayor said that the "ongoing campaign" nature of elections has become more prevalent and intense, leading to a "constant campaigning messaging war."

Tweedy's term ends in January, and as her stretch of public service winds down, Tweedy said she is thankful for the time she spent serving her home city and the many items she helped see through to approval on council.

Specifically, Tweedy said she is excited council took several measures showing their support for the city's public safety arm, through salary increases to police officers, as well as allocating the money for a new police headquarters, slated to be built on Odd Fellows Road.

"Definitely excited about the police headquarters because there were just so many years that it was needed," Tweedy said. "While councils have talked about it, this council made it a priority to make it happen, along with the city manager and staff."

Along with police raises, Tweedy believes council's prioritization of raises for city staff was another sign of support for the work they do.

She also mentioned several infrastructure projects, such as the Lakeside Drive bridge and roundabout, which was born out of another crisis, when six inches of rain overtopped College Lake Dam in August 2018, putting at risk the integrity of the dam and homes downstream.

Finally, Tweedy said she is proud of the work council put in to addressing the city's parks and recreation department, completely renovating each neighborhood center, and generally improving one of the city's most important departments when it comes to eliminating "urban stressors," she said.

Ward II Councilman Sterling Wilder, who has served alongside Tweedy on council the last two years and has known her since before she was first elected, credited Tweedy for her ability to "cut through the weeds" during council debates.

"I love her voice. If you watch a city council meeting ... you always appreciate her voice and appreciate her directness in trying to cut through the weeds. Sometimes she'll address the elephant in the room when other people don't want to address things. A lot of times she will call things out, so I love her transparency in trying to get to the core issues while always fighting for the people of our community," Wilder said.

Similarly, Nelson, who served alongside Tweedy on council from 2014 to 2022, said the former mayor always has been a "passionate, zealous and steadfast advocate for the viewpoints she values."

When asked what she will miss most about leaving council, Tweedy immediately said it was the people that she came across on the job.

"You only learn what's occurring in neighborhoods; yeah, you can read a report, or hear about it through the media, but it's a different thing when you're face to face and engage with the residents. You're hearing the problems, but then you're tasked with going back and saying, 'How do we solve this?' Or you're taking an individual's complaint back to the people who can effect change," Tweedy said.

Wilder said there would be a void when Tweedy leaves council because her voice is so "powerful" in representing her community on council.

"When certain issues come up, we might look at it through our lens, which is different from another person who may not be from here, or wasn't raised here, or doesn't have a similar background," Wilder said. "She was able to bring that diversity and a different lens for our city."

Tweedy now runs her own consulting firm. She formerly was CEO of Lynchburg Community Action Group; that nonprofit named a new CEO effective in late October.

Even as her term expires, the former mayor said "the work won't stop" when she leaves council.

"I really am focused on helping those individuals in our community because there are so many opportunities available," Tweedy said. "There are people who want to ... realize their dreams. Be motivated to push for businesses they want to open. Or just reach some of their own goals. I want to focus on helping people get there."

Tags Treney Tweedy Lynchburg City School Board Politics Transports Mayor Policy City Council Councilmember Decade Joan Foster Lynchburg City Council Work Lot Council Campaign Rhetoric Lynchburg Collaboration Institutes Randy Nelson Election Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox!

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